LZZY HALE And MARK MENGHI Bring On The Grunge Nostalgia With Cover Of SOUNDGARDEN's 'Birth Ritual'

By David E. Gehlke

Cameron Crowe's 1992 movie "Singles" was one of the rare feature films whose soundtrack helped it land a release date. According to Crowe's diaries at the time (released in Rolling Stone magazine in 2017),the film failed to impress studio execs and test audiences. With NIRVANA now red-hot after the release of "Nevermind", the suits even suggested to Crowe that he re-title the movie "Come As You Are". Fortunately for Crowe, the movie's soundtrack (released in June 1992),featuring the likes of ALICE IN CHAINS, PEARL JAM, MOTHER LOVE BONE, SMASHING PUMPKINS and SOUNDGARDEN, started shifting serious units, which, along with some script rewrites, improved the flick's standing with executives and test audiences. "Singles" eventually hit theaters in September 1992, helping turn grunge music into a mainstream phenomenon.

The "Singles" soundtrack made a lasting impression with METAL ALLEGIANCE bassist and producer Mark Menghi, who has since tapped SOUNDGARDEN's "Birth Ritual" as the latest cover song for his KING ULTRAMEGA Chris Cornell tribute project. The cover features the HALESTORM duo of vocalist Lzzy Hale and guitarist Joe Hottinger, along with SOUNDGARDEN drummer Matt Cameron, who performed on the original version. Attempting to sing Cornell's vocal parts isn't a walk in the park, yet the always up for a challenge Hale proves worthy, helping Menghi add to an already impressive list of covers that honor the legacy of Cornell. With 1990s nostalgia in full swing, BLABBBERMOUTH.NET grabbed Hale and Menghi to talk about "Birth Ritual" and how grunge impacted their careers.

Blabbermouth: Before we get into "Birth Ritual", do either of you have a favorite scene in "Singles"? Mine is when Bridget Fonda accidentally dials Tad Doyle of TAD.

Lzzy: "I think it's the live band footage. At the time that I saw 'Singles', I was a kid, and we were just starting the 'big idea' of being in a band. I was obsessed with knowing how all that worked. Like, 'How do you put that together?' Any type of cinematic something that was about that, I was obsessed with; then you push forward to movies like 'Almost Famous' or 'Spinal Tap'. The more you're in a band, the more you realize how true that stuff is."

Mark: "I loved the Cornell cameo. Matt Dillon's testing a new radio system in his car. Chris doesn't say a word. He just walks out; the windows blow out and boom, it goes into 'Birth Ritual'."

Blabbermouth: What led you to choose "Birth Ritual"? It's a B-side, so it's a bit of an obscure track outside of it appearing on the "Singles" soundtrack.

Mark: "The soundtrack defined my youth, my teenage years. I was in the thick of it as a teenager during that time. I was living in New York, on the other coast, but this music was very prevalent out here. It was everything. Everywhere you looked was SOUNDGARDEN, ALICE [IN CHAINS], PEARL JAM, MUDHONEY, MOTHER LOVE BONE, TAD, SONIC YOUTH; it was before them, but they were very popular. It was the movement. That soundtrack, in my opinion, is probably the greatest soundtrack of all time. That's my opinion. I'm all over the place musically. I can be Stevie Wonder one day; EXODUS the next day. I'm all over the place, but that soundtrack is eclectic. 'Birth Ritual' is fucking heavy. You listen to Kim's [Thayil] riffing on that and Chris, just the way he's singing that; I've always been hooked on that song. I knew from day one this song was going to be on it in some way, but we needed someone who could do it justice vocally. Lzzy absolutely slayed it; killed it. It's part of my youth, this song. I know it's a B-side; I know it's not a popular SOUNDGARDEN song, but in my brain, it's one of their most famous songs to me because of the time that I heard it and was hooked on it."

Blabbermouth: Lzzy, what was it like getting into Chris's vocals?

Lzzy: "I do this to myself all the time where I say yes first, then ask questions later. It's like, 'Yeah, that will be awesome!' Then it's 'Okay, what did I get myself into?' It was really wonderful. It was challenging in a beautiful way because, specifically with this song, his placement of the melody isn't anywhere I normally go in my brain. Everyone has a different approach to music, but that's what I love about Chris. It almost sounds like it shouldn't work — like those verse melodies, like, that shouldn't work in that musical bed — but it does. He broke into the house. [Laughs] He found the back door. For me, it was awesome to actually really get to dig into that and sing that and make that sound natural for me, like putting myself in those shoes, almost imagining, like, if I was the one that was trying to come up with this and write this, how would I approach that? Then there's C-section in the song where even Cornell is at the top of his range. I listen to it, and I'm like, 'I hope I can hit that note!' I love doing that stuff because I've done it on purpose throughout my years. I know enough about my voice to know that, on a good day, I'm probably about a three-and-a-half-octave range, but I try to stay away from knowing where my limitations are. I'm like, 'Let's try anything once, and if I can't hit it, fine, we'll figure it out.' But I also don't want to let any of these guys down. There's a certain kind of magic when you put yourself in that uncomfortable situation where you have to pull this off, so you're singing in a way that maybe you wouldn't normally if you're doing something that's in more of your comfort zone. It was wonderful. I thoroughly enjoyed taking this one on."

Blabbermouth: Lzzy, you've been open about your admiration for bands like CINDERELLA and SKID ROW when you were growing up. Did you ever cross into grunge?

Lzzy: "I did. If it was good, it's good, so kind of the same wavelength that Mark was saying; you listen to all sorts of music. Right now, I'm obsessed with the back catalog of Ozzy's [Osbourne] solo career, but I'm also listening to MUMFORD AND SONS, their new record, too. It just depends. I came into grunge a little late, in the late '90s, when I started getting into it. When it all started, I was obsessed with the '80s, so I wasn't paying attention to what was going on; I was listening to a lot of my dad's records. I ended up meeting Joe Hottinger, who's also on the track, and we started trading CDs and mixed tapes, like burned mixed tapes. I introduced him to DIO and SKID ROW and all of this stuff, and he's like, 'Listen to SOUNDGARDEN, listen to SMASHING PUMPKINS, all of this.' That was our meeting of the minds when we first met. In a lot of ways, our band is such a mishmash of the different things that made us passionate as children, so, yeah, for me, this is a joy to be involved with SOUNDGARDEN. I think that's what I loved about SOUNDGARDEN most of all: it's kind of like they took their influences from that era before and they kind of carried a lot of that stuff on, especially with the notes Chris Cornell sings, but then they were dark and heavy enough for everybody in the '90s to be like, 'Okay, I feel seen.' For me, it was a great, happy medium."

Blabbermouth: How did Matt Cameron get involved?

Mark: "He recorded his drums for this about a year ago; they've been sitting for a minute. After we released 'Rusty Cage' last July, it was a full-blown push to get almost every song tracked on drums, whether it was Matt, Dave Krusen [ex-PEARL JAM], Kenny Aronoff, or Charlie Benante [ANTHRAX], those are the drummers on this. All of those songs were tracked around the same time. Getting Matt came from management, and, obviously, knowing this is going to MusiCares and all of the proceeds. I kind of feel dumb saying this: It was relatively easy. [Laughs] But we asked Matt; we asked everybody: 'Want to be involved in this?' I asked Ben [Shephard, SOUNDGARDEN, bass] as well, and I'm still hoping, being a huge fan of his. We had Matt, and then fast forward to a few months ago, when Alex Skolnick was in the studio finishing up some METAL ALLEGIANCE music. I said, 'Hey man, do you want to play guitar on 'Loud Love'?' Fast forward, I suggested Lzzy to Alex on 'Loud Love'. He's the one who connected those pieces between Lzzy, Joe, and me, and then when I was going back and forth with Joe, I said, 'Hey, by the way, we have 'Birth Ritual' with Matt Cameron on drums. Do you want to play guitar and have Lzzy sing?' The next day, he fired off 'Loud Love' and 'Birth Ritual', done. I was like, 'What the fuck?' I remember I called Joe and said, 'Dude, this is awesome.' It kind of happened pretty organically. Nothing was forced on anything. I think you hear that in the music, in all of these songs. Every musician on every track has been very easy to work with and very accommodating with their time, too. I think it comes across."

Blabbermouth: How many parameters do you give the musicians when covering these songs, Mark?

Mark: "Some of them, not all of them. And you could hear it. If you listen to our version of 'Be Yourself', it doesn't have vocals. So I had a very specific mindset for that song, and the Cornell solo songs too. So 'Dead Wishes' and 'Preaching The End Of The World', they were very specific about the placement of notes and instrumentation and what instrumentation was going on. With 'Loud Love' and 'Birth Ritual', the marching orders were just, 'Let's fucking rip. Do what you do best.' I really had nothing to add to Joe or Lzzy on their performances. I'm like, 'Just do what you guys do.'"

Lzzy: "I think Joe and I were talking that if you had told our teenage selves that one day we'd be working with all you guys and also be on a track with Matt Cameron, we would have been like, 'No, that's impossible! That's never going to happen.' So it's definitely a pinch-me moment. But I think that when everybody has the same mentality and the same reasons for doing this, we're all on the same page. There's no way it can't turn out magical because you're all giving your best. You know, we're not going in there to be like, 'Yeah, that's fine. I'll just do that in an afternoon, and it'll be fine.' It goes deeper than what a normal cover would look like."

Blabbermouth: Lzzy: Do you get asked to do a lot of things like this?

Lzzy: "I get asked to do quite a lot, and it's a blessing and a curse because I always want to do everything, and then all of a sudden you realize that I actually need to sleep as well. [Laughs] You have to do a healthy yes/no balance. But I love it. I learned something new by trying to wear somebody else's leather jacket for a second. I like putting myself in that, and I learn a lot about myself. I learn more about the songs I like by carrying them. And then the inspiration kind of comes full circle because whatever you learn, you carry with you later. And so, all of a sudden, fortunately and unfortunately, your standards get a little higher. And so then you're going into work on original material, and I'm just like, 'That doesn't rock as hard as 'Birth Ritual', so throw it out.'"

Mark: "It's funny you mentioned that. I think it was in October or November, when we were recording 'Loud Love'. We were working on new METAL ALLEGIANCE music, and I was just criticizing the shit out of Alex all night. When you're doing this stuff, you're so highly critical of everything. And you're criticizing yourself, right? We're our own worst enemies. I know I'm my own worst enemy. And when it comes to that original music and writing, now you're questioning yourself because you're comparing it to something so epic, where, at least in my mind, I know it's not going to be as epic, but I'm going to try everything I've got to at least get it there. And that's the case for 'Black Horizon' for METAL ALLEGIANCE. When we put that out, and we had William [DuVall, ALICE IN CHAINS] on that, we were writing that song. And then I was just, I had to be annoying as shit. I had to. But Lzzy nailed it."

Blabbermouth: Do you subscribe to the idea that every riff has been written?

Mark: "That's what made SOUNDGARDEN brilliant. You asked, 'Has every riff been written? Kim, Ben and Chris said, 'Fuck this. Let's fuck with tunings.' So now they were changing tunings on instruments to come up with more riffs. So, it was the trickle-down effect."

Lzzy: "That's a good trick. It's like, 'You know what? I've been playing the same pattern. I can't get out of this box. Let me just screw the tuning up.' And I can probably still play that same pattern, but it'll automatically be something different. That's a good trick, actually."

Blabbermouth: For you, Lzzy, the ongoing debate among singers is whether to start tuning the guitars down. Does that conversation ever come up with your bandmates?

Lzzy: "Yeah, definitely. It's a toxic trait of mine because I never asked to do that as a singer because of pride. It's like, 'No, I can sing it; it's fine.' We mess with our live set every single night because we have people that come to multiple gigs. I love them all, but my goodness, so we're trying to keep everything fresh for everybody. And so we'll have these transitions, and the guys will do this to me all the time. They're like, 'We know we do this in drop C, but can we bump it up to D so we can go right into this next song? Can you handle that as well?' And of course I'm just like, 'Sure, let's do it.' And then you regret that later, after you do it a couple of times. Then I'm like, 'Man, I'm working too hard. We don't need to work that hard.' So we'll see how many years I can pull that one off. Maybe I still have that childish, reckless abandon in me to where I'm just like, 'Yeah, whatever.' You know, before you realize some things are not possible, you think that anything's possible. I'm always thinking, 'Let's trying anything.'"